New EPA rule muddies the water. With a
pen stroke, it pushes aside ‘navigable water’ limitations

by
REP. GREG WALDEN Guest
writer, Herald and News June 2, 2015

All across Oregon and the
rural West, farmers, ranchers, and other property owners have
been wondering: What will Washington, D.C. try to unnecessarily
regulate next? Where will a federal agency again attempt
to curtail private property rights? How will this uncertainty
affect already struggling rural economies?

Last week we got that answer
when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its
rule to massively and unilaterally expand federal jurisdiction
over water and private property.

With the stroke of a pen,
the administration has pushed aside the “navigable waters”
limitations of the Clean Water Act, leaving in its wake vague
definitions that potentially open up intermittent streams,
vernal pools, irrigation ditches or ponds to even more federal
regulations.

The EPA first proposed this
rule under the guise of “clarifying” the scope of the Clean
Water Act. But I’ve heard throughout Oregon that the vague
language in their proposal actually creates more uncertainty,
not less. More red tape, not less. For farmers, ranchers,
Oregonians and others that utilize our water resources, it is a
huge threat.

Ranchers are wondering when
the EPA will come after their stock ponds. Wheatgrowers worry about an
intermittent stream adjacent to a field. Fruit and vegetable
growers are concerned about their irrigation ditches.

As one eastern Oregon
rancher told me, the rule is “an overreach by the federal
government that threatens to eliminateconservation practices
currently implemented by farmers and ranchers across Oregon.”

I have long opposed
expansion of this authority, whether through legislation or
administrative rulemaking. This regulatory overreach by the EPA
blatantly ignores Congress’ repeated rejection of similar
legislative efforts to expand jurisdiction of the Clean Water
Act in the past. Of course, we shouldn’t be that surprised. The
EPA has tried this before, and they have twice been rebuked by
the Supreme Court.

Even the Small Business
Administration has said that the proposed rule would have
“direct, significant effects” on small businesses, and
recommended that the EPA withdraw their rule. But the agency
went full steam ahead this week.

The economies of rural
Oregon and other communities around the country face enough
obstacles already. Broken federal land policies and unnecessary
red tape have strangled communities, often leaving only
agriculture to grow jobs and combat unemployment rates in the
double digits.

We don’t need agencies in
Washington D.C. erecting more hurdles and creating more
uncertainty as our farmers and ranchers work to feed the world
and create jobs in
rural communities.

That’s why I worked hard to
pass a bill in the House to require the EPA to withdraw the
rule. The Regulatory Integrity Protection Act (H.R. 1732) passed
the House on a bipartisan vote in May. 24 House Democrats
(including my Oregon colleague Kurt Schrader) joined every
Republican in supporting this commonsense measure.

As one Oregon farmer told me
when a similar bill passed the House last year, “This attempt to
control private lands using the Clean Water Act must be stopped.
It is important that farms be able to focus on raising fresh,
healthy, and necessary food and feed for this world without
unnecessary regulations. Congress has taken an important step to
help ensure farmers can continue to farm their land without
federal permission and allows landowners to meaningfully improve
water quality through existing state programs.”

The House has also passed
legislation that would prohibit funding from being used on this
rule (this is on top of our successful efforts to cut the EPA’s
budget by 21 percent — $2.2 billion — over the past five years).

The Senate should take up
and pass these bills right away and send the EPA back to the
drawing board. Our farmers, ranchers and rural communities
deserve better than federal agencies strangling them with more
red tape. It’s time to ditch this rule.

Greg Walden is the U.S.
Representative for Oregon, serving since 1999. He is the only
Republican representative in the state of Oregon.

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